Dark explanation

So, yesterday I finished watching Dark season 2 and I LOVED IT. Probably the series that has got me more hooked ever. Dark season 2 is full of intense and mind-blowing moments and in this post I´ll try to do a season 1 and season 2 explanation, as many people consider it pretty complicated and season 2 is coming next month.

Let´s start...

I´ll start explaining by classifying the families and all the relationships between the characters.

There are 4 families: the Nielsen family, the Doppler family, the Kahnwald family, and the Tiedemann family.

The Nielsen family

So, in the first chapter of season one, the Nielsen family was just Martha, Magnus, Mikkel, Ulrich, Katharina, Mads, Tronte, and Jana, and as the series continued we got to know Tronte´s mother who is Agnes, Tronte´s father is not revealed but my guess and most of the people guess is that is Noah.

Then, we realize that Mikkel is actually Michael, Jonas's father. This is because Mikkel traveled to the past, 1986, and got trapped in there, so he started a new life there and the nurse that was in charge of him, Ines, adopted him and changed his name to Michael. Then Michel met Hannah and years later they got married and had Jonas.

In this family tree, we can see it more clear:

The Kahnwald family

The series first chapter opens with Michael´s suicide and later, we get to know the whole story behind Michael. The fact that Michael is Mikkel, as I´ve explained, and that makes Martha, Jonas´s love interest, Jonas´s aunt, and things get really complicated. Also, in season 2 we get to know that Jonas is Adam, who is "the bad guy" behind Sic Mundus, which is some type of time travelers cult and I´ll later explain deeply the relevance it has.

The Tiedemann family

At first, the Tiedemann´s don´t really feel like some relevant people but as the series goes on we realize that they are key in the whole time traveling situation. Egon and Doris have Claudia, and then Claudia has Regina, with someone we don´t know yet. Then, Regina marries Alekxander, who changes his surname to Tiedemann instead of Köhler, later we get to know that his real name is Boris Niewald and that the name he adopted, Alekxander Köhler is the name of the missing brother of the new policeman in season two, Clauser. Clauser shows a photo to Alekxander/Boris of his missing brother and we can see he´s young Noah. They give us some clues about the whole Alekxander mystery but nothing is really solved, season 3 will surely solve that.

I´ll explain later the relevance Noah and Claudia have on the story, in regards to what side they are in and what are their intentions.

The Doppler family

As happens with the Tiedemans, at least for me, at the beginning it felts like they were not very relevant but season two was a wild ride, and the Dopplers were one of the most important, if not the most important, families. So, in season 1 the family tree was pretty normal: Bernd and Agnes have Helge, and then Helge and someone we don´t know yet have Peter Doppler, also. On the other side of the family tree H.g. Tannhaus is supposed to be Charlotte's grandfather, and then Peter and Charlotte have Fraziska and Elizabeth. In season two we are told that Charlotte´s father is Noah and that Charlotte´s mother is Elizabeth, her own daughter. We don't really know how that Noah-Elizabeth relationship started but at the end of season two we can see young Noah and Elizabeth seeing each other for the first time, even though there´s a huge age gap, Elizabeth is like 10 or so and young Noah is like 20 but it could be something feasible some years later. So, Charlotte is the mother of her mother, literally. Probably the most shocking revelation, at least for me, in season 2.

So, now that the families have been explained I´ll talk a bit about the two groups that are in some time war in the series, Sic Mundus (whose leader is Adam, who is old Jonas), who want the Apocalypse to happen and start a new world and, on the other side, Claudia and middle age Jonas and young Jonas, that don´t want the apocalypse to happen.

The whole apocalypse thing is caused by an explosion that we can see at the end of season 2 and during the whole season we can see how the world has changed,

it´s basically the end of the world and most of the people have died.

Fun fact: the apocalypse happens in 2020.

Sic Mundus

This organization/cult is a society of time travelers in Winden led by Adam. Their motto is "Sic Mundus Creatus Est", which means "Thus, the world was created". The members in this society which we know are the following: Agnes Nielsen, Adam, Noah, Franziska, and Magnus, there are some other members but they are irrelevant people. In this society, we can see old Franziska and old Magnus, which were teens in 2019, but the whole Sic Mundus society is settled in 1921, which is the year when all the time circles started. All the members in this society are time travelers and at the end of season two Noah wants to get away from Sic Mundus as he doesn´t want to be a bad person, all the bad things he did in season 1 and 2 were supposed to be for a good cause but in season 1 he realizes the cause is not a good cause. Later, Agnes, Noah´s brother, kills Noah (middle age Noah).

The "good" side

We don´t really get to know if it´s a good side as we don´t really know what has happened after the explosion and what was Claudia´s real intention but they are supposed to be trying to save the world. On this side, the "members" are the following: old Claudia (who is like the leader), middle-age Jonas, middle-age Claudia, and young Jonas. As I´ve said their intention is to save the world from the apocalypse but we don´t really know if they achieved their goal. Old Claudia was killed in some chapter of season two by middle-age Noah, in 1953, so young Jonas looked for middle-age Claudia in 1986 and they "allied" together and continued with the plan. Meanwhile, middle-age Jonas tried to save Martha from dying by locking her in the bunker but later, she runs away, has a cute moment with Jonas after not seeing him for a lot of months and later, old-Jonas, Adam, kills Martha in front of young-Jonas, who was supposed to continue with the "Save Winden From The Apocalypse" plan but stayed with Martha trying to save her while she was dying. Later, the exploration happens and we can see someone who looks exactly like Martha except that she has bangs and short hair, some futuristic clothing and tells Jonas "I´m not who you think you are. We have to go" and the series ends. Another super shocking moment in the series that deserves some answers.

So, with this explanation and some rewatching, I´m sure anyone could be ready for season 3!